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* Ooh. Surely there must be some middle ground we can find. *

I’m a primitive Christian, Ante Nicene, a Jewish monotheist; not a Nicene affirming Christian. I originally registered here as “Christian” but a few of the Nicene Christians strenuously objected to me being allowed to become a member since I didn’t meet the board’s definition of Christianity. In...

Yes. Another fine example, in my view, of the reliability of scripture. The Messiah had / has multiple functions to perform.

The scribe still needed to take the next step -> recognize Jesus as the Messiah promised, raised up and sent by their God, the Father. There is nothing to protest. When we see and hear Jesus we should see and hear his God, the Father, in him. Thomas finally saw what he hadn’t seen in John 14...

Was the Jewish scribe whom Jesus agreed with in Mark 12:28-34 a Nicene creed affirming person?

That’s fine. We’re just having a pleasant conversation, and we’re both trying to abide by the Board policy. They make that claim but I don’t see support for it. The churches in major cities squabbled over who had the preeminence for some time before Rome finally emerged the victor. Works are...

I don’t think so. That’s what I understood you to be saying. *** Yes. We are in agreement on your point. Yes. In some circles it is identified as the Messiah’s Creed. It is the creed of Judaism. Since Jesus’ religion is Judaism, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Jesus would have for his...

The Holy Spirit is in the Nicene Creed but it doesn’t go far enough. That’s why the quote from Gregory of Nazianzus is so important for all students of Christianity. I don’t. The Nicene Creed (original and as amended) asserts much more than primitive Christianity does, and uses language and...

That’s of course right. That’s remarkable. I’ve never met anyone who believes Church history ended with the last pages of Acts. One of my favorite fields of study is Church history. We were required to read it as college students but I’ve been reading and studying for at least 45 years. The...

Do you see why it had to be amended in 381 at the Council of Contantinople? I agree. 2,000 years takes us back beyond Nicaea to primitive Christianity.

There is, as you probably know, a veritable mountain of books written on the subject. It sometimes surprises my readers, as it did many of my students, that I recommend - almost exclusively - reading trinitarian authors on the matter. Catholic scholars are, in my opinion, better than Protestant...

I may be speaking presumptuously but since you aren’t familiar with Gregory of Nyssa you probably aren’t familiar with Gregory of Nazianzus. He is another key figure in Nicene Christianity. You should read him too. What he said about ”the wide amongst us” in A.D. 380 will, I think, surprise...

It’s important for us to remember that Jesus and Paul are both Jews. Christianity is Jewish; a sect of Judaism which is at odds with other sects of Judaism. I think Jesus and Paul and the High Priest all held the same understanding of monotheism. What separated Jesus and Paul from the High...

I think we should all be able to agree that he didn’t. I concede that there may be some who will say that he did. I believe that it is. The issue isn’t about monotheism in his dispute with his fellow Jews - they were all, including himself, Jewish monotheists who believed in the same God - but...

I do submit to a creed - the creed of Judaism, the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4) - but it isn’t the one (or more?) that @GodsGrace does. What I don’t do is insist that everyone must submit to the only creed that I submit to in order to be Christian.

Would belief in Jewish monotheism cause someone to question the reliability of the Bible? I don’t think so but I’m willing to listen to anyone who thinks that it would, or that it might.

It also comes out of Church history. For those interested in reading for themselves what Gregory said about Jewish monotheism, I’m alluding to his Oratio Catechetica 3. It’s easy to find it online and read at no cost. Naturally Gregory also speaks about the subject which by Board policy can’t...

He’s an extremely important figure in the post-biblical development of Nicene Christianity. Enjoy your meal. Read Gregory of Nyssa. He won’t upset your digestion!